i<l6 The Irish Nahtraiut. June-,. 



IRISH SOCIETIES. 



ROYAL ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY 



Recent gifts include two- Baboons, a White -crowned Mangabey, and a. 

 Mona Monkey from Dr. Montgomery, an Irish Stoat, eight Redpolls and 

 a Reed Bunting from Mr. W, W. Despard, a Sulphur -crested Cockatoo^ 

 from the Hon. Lady M'Calmont, and a Demoiselle Crane from the Hon. 

 A. G. S. Canning. Two Patas Monkeys, a Diana Monkey, five Rhesus, 

 a small Macaque, a pair of Ruffed Lemurs^ a White-nosed Coati, a Ratel,. 

 and a Manchurian Crane have been bought. 



The Society has recently lost by death two of the most popular 

 inhabitants of the Monkey House, the male Chimpanzee, " James," who. 

 had lived in the gardens for two years,, and the White-handed Gibbon. 



DUBLIN MICROSCOPICAL CLUB. 



March 13. — The Club met at Leinster House.- 



N. CoLGAN exhibited a living specimen of a minute Sea Slug, Actaeonia 

 Cocksi, taken in a rock pool at Bullock, on the 2nd March. Along with 

 the animal were shown two of its egg-clusters with the larvae in different 

 stages of development. The more advanced larvae, which were in slow 

 motion within the egg, already showed the eye-spots and the dark pig- 

 mentation of the body. This species is of peculiar interest by reason 

 of its abnormal development. Unlike all of its close relations, the Nudi- 

 branchs proper, with which, indeed, some authors class it, Actaeonia does 

 not in early life pass through the metamorphic condition known as the 

 veliger stage, but assumes while still within the egg envelope a form 

 differing in little but size and the absence of tentacles from that of the 

 adult animal. Pelseneer, who has studied the life history of this species, 

 terms this mode of development condensation embryogenique (MiscelL. 

 Biol. Giard, Paris, 1899.) 



A week after exhibition the more advanced larvae emerged from the 

 egg in a perfectly healthy condition. 



Dr. G. H. Pethybridge exhibited the parasitic fungus Coleosporium 

 Senecionis (Pers.) Fr,, one of the heteroecious rusts requiring two distinct 

 hosts for the completion of its cycle of development. One of these is 

 the Pine, on the needles of which it forms the well-known "bladder rust" 

 formerly knoun as Peridermium pint f. acicola and specimens in spirit 

 of this stage in the life history were exhibited. The other host is a species of 

 Senecio, frequently 5. vulgaris — the Common Groundsel, but in the present 

 instance it was the cultivated Cineraria. Cinerarias are as a rule com- 

 paratively free from fungoid diseases, but this Cineraria rust has recently 

 made its appearance in several locaUties in England (see Chittenden, 

 Journ. Roy. Hort. Soc, vol. 33, 1908, p. 511). The specimen exhibited 

 came from a Dublin garden, and this is the first record of its appearance 

 in Ireland. Chittenden says that the fungus may be prevented from 



